1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of dynamic durability analysis and fatigue area identification and, more specifically, to a method of dynamic durability analysis and fatigue area identification using modal techniques for a structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The trend in the vehicle industry, and in particular the motor vehicle industry, is to reduce new product development cycle time, from conception to sale. From an engineering perspective, increasingly sophisticated analysis techniques are being utilized in simulating a vehicle structure to predict vibrational characteristics of a motor vehicle. For example, in the field of motor vehicle dynamics, a widely known method of finite element analysis is utilized to identify natural modes and frequencies and predict stress responses and fatigue life of the vehicle structure. The finite element model commonly utilizes simple loads, for static as well as quasi-static (inertia relief) methods, to determine stresses and fatigue life in the vehicle structure. However, these methods may not identify all durability-related areas of the motor vehicle that are dynamic in nature and respond with elastic vibrations. The finite element model may also use modal analysis, including transient modal analysis, to identify natural modes, frequencies and corresponding stress responses. However, this technique is limited to only a few seconds of dynamic durability road load data or for a few known elements of the structure.
These techniques are not feasible for predicting potential high stress responses within a large structure, such as a complete motor vehicle, due to the prohibitive amount of computer time and memory necessary to analyze the data for such a vehicle structure. Fatigue life prediction needs a complete structural stress time response history, therefore, the computational time is significant. For example, a finite element model of a motor vehicle may include approximately 200,000 elements and a vehicle durability test route may last 30 to 60 minutes. Determining the dynamic stress time history of such a model using conventional methods would require over 200 days of computer processing time. The computational magnitude of determining the stress response for each element within the vehicle structure renders current methods impractical. The problem is described in a Society of Automotive Engineers paper entitled, "Dynamic Durability Analysis of Automotive Structures" by L. Huang, H. Agrawal and P. Kurudiyara, SAE No. 980695, presented Feb. 23-26, 1998, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Thus, there is a need in the art for an efficient method of calculating a dynamic stress time history for a structure to predict fatigue life within the structure.